Light It Up

 In Anchorage, we've had Municipal Light and Power since the dawn of time, at least the dawn of time recorded by electric clocks.

But recently, Chugach Electric purchased ML&P from the Municipality. I didn't understand how spending a billion dollars to complete a monopoly was going to make my bill go down or service go up, but I'm not an accountant or an electrician so I confess that I probably don't understand what makes this deal so wired.

My previous experience with Chugach Electric was a monthly visit to their office to ask them to PLEASE put the bill in my name so my former tenant would stop accusing me of refusing to change the bill. But that was like 40 years ago, so I assumed that they might have updated their billing department. Alas, just one more hope crushed in this cruel year.

The sale closed on October 30th, and today was the first day that they would accept payments from former ML&P customers, even customers like me that had auto-pay. They welcomed me to the fold today with two emails that said my payment was overdue. Alright, Chugach, just like old times.

 We’ve moved up the road a few blocks and up the luxe level a few miles as we house sit for friends in Green Valley. They are avidly interested in birds. They’ve made their yard attractive to various species so they can have the viewing and sonic pleasure of an aviary without all the nets and cages. 

This morning, I had coffee on their patio and watched the sun rise. At precisely 6am the yard filled with birdsong and actual birds. So PRECISELY at six that it seemed like they had commuted in together to clock in on time. Except for the hummingbirds, overzealous little busybodies, who flitted in while it was still dark possibly to write up late arrivals. 

The other day, I refilled the suet early so I could show off the birds to my granddaughter via FaceTime. I felt some guilt that I might be exploiting the birds for my own purposes, but I rationalized it (rationalizing being my superpower) that it was all consensual and no one was harmed. 

Yesterday, this fellow showed up in the bird bath/reservoir. Earlier, I sensed some derision here when I posted a picture of a bobcat. So, to be clear, I’m not claiming this is a condor or a pterodactyl; I think it’s a hawk. For those of you with protractors and slide rules, I was about eighteen feet away and the birdbath is about forty-two inches high. It was 11:07am when I took the picture if you want to extrapolate from the shadows to imply something about the bird. I suppose you can infer what you will about me that I took your (bob)cattiness so deeply.

I recently read Radium Girls, a book about the young women of the early 20th Century who painted the numbers on glow-in-the-dark watch faces. At least they did until their technique of putting the brush in their mouths between each number led to their jaws and teeth rotting out of their heads and early deaths.
The business was really profitable, though. When the GOP talks about job-killing regulations, keep in mind that they are advocating instead for employee-killing regulations.

I recently lost my keys when they fell out of my pocket when I was bicycling. I probably would have found them with the Tile app, but a Good Samaritan picked them up. Eventually, when I went to put an ad in the paper, I saw the GS had already put an ad in that he’d found them. Joyful reunion, story over.
Except now, when I step outside my wife quizzes me about my keys like I’ve spent my life strewing them like a flower girl at a locksmith’s wedding.